Case study for DDB Shanghai and McDonald’s launch of the ‘macho’ campaign for the Big Mac
The aim of the campaign from DDB Shanghai was to make the Chinese consumer love Big Mac, establishing Big Mac as the iconic product, just like in the rest of the world. Eating beef is seen as a ‘macho’ behavior to consumers, because it is often consumed in big bites, reflecting a macho personality.
DDB was given the task of strengthening the product equity, making the macho personality resonate with consumers, and most importantly, creating online buzz for Big Mac.
Their target aspires to have a ‘big macho personality’ (in the Chinese terms, ‘ye-men’). A ‘big macho personality’ means unpretending, uncomplicated, uninhibited, unhesitating, non-superficial, and uncompromising. They all have different views of whom and what a macho personality is, but in their hearts, father represents the ultimate macho hero. However, people hardly show their admiration to their fathers. Leveraging on this insight, DDB China Group created an online platform, giving consumers the opportunity to pay tribute to their fathers with McDonald’s macho product – the Big Mac.
Partnering with one of the most popular social media platforms, Sina Weibo, we created a mini-site for consumers to pay tribute to their father. Participants get to choose seven macho personalities that they think will best describe their father’s macho personality. Each personality reflects different layers of the Big Mac. Alternatively, they were given the option to write their own description about their father’s macho personality. After the selection, they were able to add their personalized Big Mac to the Big Mac Tower. The aim was to create the tallest Big Mac ever to pay tribute to all fathers.
The mechanism employed relatively new technology. They created a digital interaction experience between mobile and PC via QR code. Consumers scanned the QR code on the screen to start the game. Then, they shook their mobile phones in order to choose the description about their father’s macho personality.
After participants built their own personalized Big Mac, they were encouraged to share on their social website in order to enter into a draw to win a Big Mac at half price or other McDonald’s coupons.
Credits – Group Creative Director: Nic Brennan. Associate Creative Director: Ying Chang. Senior Art Directors: Michael Lu, Ilias Zhang. Senior Copywriter: Avril Jin. Business Director: Angie Wong. Account Director: Lawrence Chiew. Senior Account Manager: JC Wu. Senior Account Executive: Renee Ho.